The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting system for broadcast multimedia data consisting of picture, sound, text and the like, to a terminal device built in a mobile station, and to the terminal device.
Conventionally, in the field of television broadcasting, the digitalization of ground-based broadcasting and satellite broadcasting has been developed, and some of them are presently brought into practice. However, these techniques are basically for the broadcasting to fixed terminal devices, and in the case where a terminal device is built in a mobile station, it is considered to be difficult technically to provide an appropriate service which is in accordance with the state of the use thereof. In particular, the contents of programs in the broadcasting are all reproduced similarly by all terminal devices, and thus it is not possible to play selectively a part of the contents of a program upon the designation of a user, a broadcast station or a use condition.
In the meantime, there is an increasing demand of a digital broadcasting system which broadcasts multimedia data containing picture, sound, texts and the like, to terminal devices built in, mainly, mobile stations. However, in order to satisfy such a demand, it is essential to solve the above-described drawbacks that is technically difficult with a conventional television broadcasting system.
The present invention has been proposed by focusing on the above-described circumstances, and the main object thereof is to provide a digital broadcasting system which not only merely provides a program as a broadcast service when broadcast multimedia data containing picture, sound, texts and the like, to a terminal device built in, mainly, a mobile station, but also is capable of presenting data which can flexibly follow up the needs and the use state of the user with the program contents themselves, as well as a terminal device therefor.
Particularly, the first object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcasting system capable of presenting data optimal to the status of the terminal device, together with a terminal device.
Further, the second object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcasting system for providing a broadcasting service from a new point of view, and capable of contributing to the development of the information society, by integrating a plurality of broadcasting services together and further integrating a new service with a conventional medium.
In order to achieve the main object, according to the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcasting system which converts one or more objects which constitute each scene of a presented program, into a broadcast signal at a broadcast station, to be broadcasted to a predetermined service area, and a terminal device for receiving the broadcast signal, from which the objects are reproduced and synthesized appropriately to reproduce the program.
With the above-described system structure, each scene of a program is constituted by one or more objects to be transmitted as a signal, and therefore it becomes possible to select the object as needed on the signal receiving side, to be reproduced. Therefore, it becomes possible to play a part of the contents of the program selectively upon the designation of the user, or the broadcast station side, and the use conditions, and thus as the contents of the program themselves, the presentation of data can be carried out flexibly with the needs of the user or the status of the use.
Here, in order to achieve the first object of the present invention, there is provided a terminal device used in a digital broadcasting system in which scene data having one or more objects is converted into a broadcast signal in a broadcast station, and the broadcast signal is transmitted directly or in relay through a satellite, to broadcast it to a predetermined service area, including: status detection means for detecting a predetermined status of the device itself; a database which stores setting data which indicates a corresponding relationship between the status of the device itself and the object presented to the user; and an object selection means. With the object selection means, an object to be presented is selected from a plurality of objects received, on the basis of the detection result of the status detection means and the setting data in the database, and thus selected object is presented to the presenting device.
Specifically, the following three structures can be considered.
According to the first structure, location detection means for detecting the present location of the device itself is provided for the status detection means, setting data which indicates a corresponding relationship between the status of the device itself and the object to be presented to the user is stored in a database. With the object selection means, an object corresponding to the present location of the self device is selected from a plurality of objects received, on the basis of the present location of the self device detected by the location detection means and the setting data in the database, and thus selected object is presented to the presenting device.
According to the second structure, moving state detection means for detecting the moving state of the device itself is provided for the status detection means, setting data which indicates a corresponding relationship between the moving state of the device itself and the object to be presented to the user is stored in a database. With the object selection means, an object corresponding to the moving state of the self device is selected from a plurality of objects received, on the basis of the moving state of the self device detected by the moving state detection means and the setting data in the database, and thus selected object is presented to the presenting device.
According to the third structure, presentation type detection means for detecting the type of the presentation device is provided for the status detection means, setting data which indicates a corresponding relationship between the type of the presentation device and the object presented to the user is stored in a database. With the object selection means, an object corresponding to the type of the presentation device is selected from a plurality of objects received, the basis of the type of the presentation device detected by the presentation type detection means and the setting data in the database, and thus selected object is presented to the presenting device.
Therefore, in the terminal device according to the present invention, an optimal object for a particular occasion can be selected and presented in accordance with various situations of the terminal device, such as the present location of the terminal device, the moving state of the terminal device and the type of the presentation device. Therefore, a further effective object presentation is provided for the terminal user.
Meanwhile, according to the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcasting system and a terminal device used in the digital broadcasting system, in which scene description data used for synthesizing a plurality of objects is converted into a broadcast signal in a broadcast station, and the signal broadcast signal is transmitted directly or in relay through a satellite, to broadcast it to a terminal device located within a predetermined service area on the ground, wherein: condition designation data transmission means for transmitting condition designation data for designating the presentation condition of an object, by containing it in the scene description data, is provided in the broadcast station, whereas status detection means for detecting a predetermined status of the device itself, and object selection means are provided in the terminal device, and with the object selection means, an object to be presented is selected from a plurality of objects received, on the basis of the detection result of the status detection means and the condition designation data contained in the scene description data received by the signal receiving means, and thus selected object is presented to the presenting device.
As the case described before, the following three structures can be considered.
According to the first structure, in condition designation data transmitting means of a broadcast station, area designation data for designating a presentation area is added to each one of the objects which constitute a scene, to be transmitted, whereas in the terminal device, location detection means for detecting a present location of the self device is provided for status detection means, and in object selection means, the present location of the self device detected by the location detection means and the area designation data contained in the scene description data received are compared with each other, and an object corresponding to the present location of the self device is selected on the basis of the result of the comparison, and then is presented on a presentation device.
According to the second structure, from the condition designation data transmitting means of the broadcast station, moving state designation data for presenting a data in accordance with the moving state of the terminal device for each one of the objects which constitute a scene, is transmitted, whereas in the terminal device, location detection means for detecting a present location of the self device is provided for status detection means, and in object selection means, the moving state of the device detected by the moving state detection means and the moving state type designation data contained in the scene description data received are compared with each other, and an object corresponding to the moving state of the self device is selected on the basis of the result of the comparison, and then is presented on a presentation device.
According to the third structure, from the condition designation data transmitting means of the broadcast station, type designation data for designating a type of the presentation device capable of presenting a data for each one of the objects which constitute a scene, is transmitted, whereas in the terminal device, presentation type detection means for detecting a type of the presentation device is provided for status detection means, and in object selection means, the type of the presentation device detected by the presentation type detection means and the type designation data contained in the scene description data received are compared with each other, and an object corresponding to the designated presentation device is selected on the basis of the result of the comparison, and then is presented on a presentation device.
Therefore, with the digital broadcast system and it terminal device according to the present invention, the most appropriate object is selected and presented in the terminal device in each time, in accordance with the various status of the terminal device such as the present location of the terminal device, the moving state of the terminal device, and the type of the presentation device, as well as in compliance with conditions designated by the broadcast station side. Therefore, the presentation of an object can be more effective for the terminal user. Further, the condition of the presentation of an object can be arbitrarily designated by the broadcast station side.
In order to achieve the second object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcasting system for providing broadcast services including at least one of picture, sound and data in each of a plurality of channels, wherein of broadcast signals of the above-mentioned channels, broadcast services which are relevant to each other can be provided for each other between arbitrary channels, and a plurality of channels provided with broadcast services relevant to each other are received and synthesized on the signal receiving side, thus achieving the integration of a plurality of broadcast services.
Further, by providing data related to other communication or broadcast data than that of the present digital broadcasting by the relevant broadcast services described above, the integration with some other media can be achieved.
Further, the terminal device used for the digital broadcasting system, comprises: a broadcast signal receiver for receiving broadcast services which are relevant to each other, which can be provided for each other between arbitrary channels, of broadcast signals of the above-mentioned channels; data synthesizing means for synthesizing a plurality of broadcast services relevant to each other, which are received by the broadcast signal receiver, thereby presenting thus synthesized services as one broadcast service; and a display and sound reproduction device for presenting a picture and sound of the broadcast service presented by the means, thereby achieving to provide data in which a plurality of broadcast services are integrated.
Here, when data relevant to communication or broadcasting data other than that of the present digital broadcasting is provided in the broadcast service, the communication and broadcasting data are obtained on the basis of the relevant data, and are made presentable, thus achieving to provide data integrated with other media.